


Birthday Blues

by LittleTortieCat



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Birthday Fic!, Gen, I just want Lance to be happy, Team as Family, Title makes it sound way more angsty than it is, little angsty
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-27
Updated: 2017-07-27
Packaged: 2018-12-07 19:24:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11630271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleTortieCat/pseuds/LittleTortieCat
Summary: Lance wakes up on his birthday and memories overtake him. Luckily, his team is there to chase the blues away.





	Birthday Blues

**Author's Note:**

> Early birthday fic yaaaaay!

When Lance opened his eyes that... morning? Was it a morning in space? He wondered if there was some Altean word for morning.  
Anyway, when he opened his eyes he felt excited and incredibly sad as well. It didn't take him long to work out why. On this day at home, he would have been woken up by his many nieces and nephews all jumping on his bed, yelling, "Uncle Lance! Uncle Lance!" Then they would drag him downstairs, still in his pyjamas, to the kitchen. There the rest of his family, including his extended family would be, all singing Happy Birthday to him. Then they would invite all his friends and neighbours to come and celebrate his birthday. Lance blinked back tears as he remembered past birthdays and the fun he had had. Well that wasn't going to happen today, was it? he thought bitterly.  
He had made sure that everybody knew of his birthday, even Keith and the mice, but it wouldn't be like it was at home. "Home," he murmured aloud.  
Absentmindedly, Lance wondered if Amada had enjoyed her twelfth birthday. He hoped she had got the model train she had longed for, and the shoes she had once pointed out to him. He remembered getting her a dolphin toy last year and she playing with it all evening. A rueful smile touched his lips.  
And on Julian's seventh, Lance remembered he had insisted on a piñata shaped like a dog, which had resulted with a mad search involving half the family. It had finally been found just in time for the celebration.  
Lance stood up and began to get dressed, his mind still focussed on birthday celebrations. On Lola's first, the celebration had still been quite large, but had ended before it got late and had been relatively subdued. Lola would be three in a few weeks, he realised. And he wouldn't be there to celebrate it. Lance sat down again as the crushing realisation of just how far away from home he was. He wrapped his arms around himself and tried to imagine he was back in the arms of his mama.  
Lance had no qualms about admitting how close he was to his mother. It had even let to some teasing from his siblings, but he had always stuck close to her, and the millions of light years he was away from her comforting arms was painfully clear to him. It hurt a lot.  
Lance knew he had to get up and face the day, be strong for the others, but it was just so difficult sometimes. And he knew this day would be one of those times.  
Lance eventually stood up and shuffled to the bathroom, where he brushed his teeth with the Altean equivalent of a toothbrush. Then he picked up one of his creams and began his daily routine. As he repeated the familiar rhythm, he reminisced on his older brother Ruyan's eighteenth. Lance had been ten at the time, and he didn't remember it very well, but there has been lots of fun and games for the younger kids and the celebrations had gone on until after midnight. He smiled at some of the antics he and his sister Riza had got up to. It had ended with them cackling in a tree with mounds of sweets, hiding from their parents.  
Once his routine was done, Lance moved to the doorway of his room, and had just stepped out into the hallway when Allura's voice rang out. "Attention! All Paladins to the training deck immediately! No hold ups, to the training deck immediately!"  
Lance sighed, and wondering what was going on now, made his way, not exactly hurrying, to the training deck.  
"Guys?" he called out, entering the pitch dark room. "Princess? Hunk? Shiro?" Lance cautiously walked forwards into the dark. Suddenly, with a bang, the entry doors shut, causing Lance to jump. "Hello?"  
"Happy Birthday Lance!" The lights turned on, revealing the rest of the team standing before a table piled with food. They were all grinning (although Keith's smile looked a little fake), and Lance even spotted some presents. And was that... a piñata? In the shape of Zarkon's ship?  
"Happy birthday Lance," Allura said, stepping forward. "Hunk told me how important your birthday was to you, so we all decided to give you a surprise!"  
Lance stood there, astounded. "Um, thanks," he managed to say, a lump forming in his throat.  
"I made all your favourite food!" exclaimed Hunk. "And we even got a piñata, since I remembered you mentioning having them at birthdays before."  
"And I thought you'd like to destroy Zarkon's ship," said Pidge, pointing at it. "So we made it like that!"  
"We couldn't not celebrate your birthday with a bang after all you did for us," said Shiro, and Lance knew he was remembering the party Lance had thrown for him, with a banner proudly announcing Shiro was now six and a quarter.  
"Happy Birthday, my boy," Coran said. "I'm looking forward to introducing you to some proper Altean party games!"  
"Well, happy birthday Lance," said Keith. "Enjoy being eighteen."  
"Lance, you okay?" Hunk asked. With a shock, Lance realised he was beginning to cry. "I'm fine," Lance sniffed. "I'm just... really touched. Thank you so much guys."  
Wordlessly, Hunk dragged Lance into a hug, where he was joined quickly by the rest of the team. It was warm, and felt like kindness, if kindness could be felt. Well, Lance was feeling it right now.  
After a minute or so, everybody disengaged from the hug. "Well," Lance began, "we can't let the food get cold."  
Pidge whooped, and turned to the table. "Come to meee, nice food!" she exclaimed.  
Lance couldn't wait for the party to get started. He would show his team how to party like Lance, and nobody else could party like Lance.

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Birthday to the Lancemeister! I hope season 3 treats you well! :)  
> I did loads of research for this actually, and I found out about some really nice customs. I didn't incorporate many of them into the fic, but there is something I would have liked to have written for Pidge's birthday that I never got the opportunity to. Anyway, who's excited as heck for season 3!!!


End file.
